If you wish to be a writer, write.
Epictetus
The first four posts in this series can be found here.
I have been thinking a lot about this blog, and various other items related to my photography. In my previous post about the Foxtail Agave, I quoted Marcus Aurelius on doing only what is necessary, in order to save time. Time is my most precious commodity, and I need to use it more wisely, more efficiently.
Today, I will make it simple.
Out of the few hundreds of pictures I took for the Foxtail Agave project, only 10 were chosen and can be seen in this link. The series boosts photographs in two aspect ratios, 2X3 and 2X4. Although I would have liked all images in the same aspect ratio, it was not possible because of the anatomy of the plant. Some images look better as 2X3 and others as 2X4.
What have I learned from my Agave study?
- I cannot always be fussy about the consistency in aspect ratio when I work on a series. Some images look better as 2X3 and others as 2X4. Who cares;
- The central leaves of the Foxtail Agave are the youngest, and those tend to be light green, which corresponds to a lot of yellow available for black and white conversion;
- The leaves farther from the center are older leaves and those tend to dark green and less yellow;
- Although overcast days with diffused light are sought after by botanical photographers, my best results with the Agave were achieved with spotty sunlight. Foxtail Agave #10 is my best example of this and my favorite image of all in the series. Note the blown out highlight on a leaf near the center. It is intentional;
- Although I favored a few images where selective focus was applied, photographing the plant with a wider lens, from an angle that puts everything is in focus, yields satisfactory results more often;
- I love the way this plant harvests the light and the harmonious curves of its leaves;
- The approach of taking many photographs of the same subject and exploring it in depth is great for practice, which ties with today’s quote, translating to photography: if you wish to photograph, photograph.
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It is all about the light 
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